Labor Day

Carlos declared that he was done traveling and wouldn't leave the house to go on another trip so I bought myself and Charlie a ticket to go to Labor Day Olympics in Cleveland....at the very last minute he decided Diego would be too devastated to miss out on the fun so he sucked it up and got back in the car for the 6 hour drive to Ohio.  I can't say he was happy about those 6 hours, but the weekend was a lot of fun.  Charlie came away with at least 3 ribbons and Diego inherited at least 3 ribbons!

The first day was the pool activities and Charlie survived the swimming race and swim relays but, like a good Taft, was mostly interested in the running races.  He placed second in swimming though, in reality, he was slow to touch the wall.  Chewing the cracker and then whistling before jumping in proved easier than I figured, but the 'wear the hat and glasses race' was way harder than I expected.  He lost interest once it came to 'collect the tennis ball' game and was adamant that I shouldn't participate in the vasoline-covered watermelon game.  It is the most lethal game, but also my favorite so I jumped in.  Charlie - the vigilant eldest son - was horrified and everytime I was in ear shot he pleaded with me to get out.  I am more risk adverse these days and, it appears that the more risk adverse one is the more likely you'll get hurt.  I did in fact get a good kick in the head.  Nathan of course convinced me it was toe nail puncture and I'd likely get some terrible infection.


On Sunday Charlie and Diego both did the fun running and relay races.  Sadly Charlie wouldn't do the three-legged race with Wallis and, oddly, (at least to me) his favorite was the tug-of-war.  The sculpture contest was a lot of fun thanks to tia Veronika supplying us with a food art book for ideas!

Here is Charlie in the 5 and under race....as you can see he bites the dust at the end, but Eli graciously lets him pretend it was a "tie"